Doing shrugs is the logical conclusion when doing DL's. Can do them after each rep or at the end of each set. Recommended this for quite a while. Even SLDL's, Romanian DL and other types of DL's.

With Olympic lifters, when doing cleans or high pulls, the traps are strongly included in this, not just the arms. Check out the thick traps, and shoulder structures, of most of these lifters. Good Luck

Heavy deads work the traps hard ..period. Going lighter to do shrugs defeats the object of the exercise(Deadlifts) it then is a Diluted poor Version. Traps should be trained on their own with shrug variations. They are 2 diffrent exercises. If i Train shrugs together with Deads i do deads first and shrugs later just to finish off my traps. less weight on deads just to put a half hearted shrug in their is in my opinion not Logical and after a few reps you will lose strength for the main meat and bones EX Deadlifts. The Traps are key to proper Deadlifts, why fatigue them faster with a mish mash lighter ex? "if it aint broke, why fix it ??"...

In SLDL don't the traps work as stabilizers mostly....if I'm also doing lower weight higher rep deads would a shrug at the end of the rep be beneficial....I understand what you mean heavy dead sets...

For Donny

Thank you for your question. If you feel that your traps benefit then do it. For me i would rather separate the two and would not Train a smaller muscle Group like traps at the expense of my hamstrings and lower back. Each to his own. Itīs a bit like cleaning a bar from the floor and then pressing it Overhead. great Overall work but you can(or i can ) press more by taking a bar of squat stands at shoulder height and pressing, depends on your Goals. On a split routine separate the movements...full Body do a stiff deadlift and shrug for Overall Stimulation ...just my opinion.

Just think of doing a shrug, with DL's (most any type), as a Super Set for the traps as well as the total back area, as they function together as a unit. Talking BB'ing reps here (8-12) but the same could be said for heavier and more serious sets of 3's for example. If you feel doing individual traps works for you, and your happy with that then it's you choice. Lots of guy's do, with good results. Shrugging at the top position is just another option some might consider. No one is suggestion that anyone should. But that full contraction of the traps, at the full standing position of the DL can make a lot of difference for a lot of guy's. Just like it would for the biceps or any other muscle group.

DL's do stretch the traps quite well, but the ultimate conclusion to this compound movement would be trap shrugs. As with ham's, stretching is good but the actual contraction of those muscles should also be included in ham work. This can work well for pure BB'ing. Want to work the hams for the full potential of progressive size/strength. This can also apply to the calves. To build muscle mass on the biceps you will require more than just stretching them (the DL can be a good stretching movement by the way) you would spend some serious time of all froms of curs. Good Luck.